Fandom? What Fandom?

I wonder if historical novels about famous artists would be an appropriate subject for readingthepast?

I'm currently reading The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein which is about the life of Pan Yuliang. The appropriation issues are grossing me right out. It feels wrong that someone would take Pan Yuliang's life and work and make it into trite entertainment.

It's not even that it's terrible book...I just have issues with how people write about the lives of artists, particularly the lives of women artists.

Here are some other books that could potentially be on the reading list (loosely organized by period):

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone (Michaelangelo)

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga
(Both are about the I Modi - a book of Renaissance Pornography)

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland (Artemisia Gentileschi)
Artemisia by Alexandra Lapierre (Artemisia Gentileschi)

The Painter by Will Davenport (Rembrandt)
Rembrandt's Whore by (Rembrandt)

The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Vermeer)
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (Vermeer)

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue (Anne Damer - female sculptor)

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (Renoir)
With Violets by Elizabeth Robards (Berthe Morisot)
Depths of Glory by Irving Stone (Pisarro)
Lust for Life by Irving Stone (Van Gogh)
The Last Van Gogh by Alison Richman

I am Madam X by (John Singer Sargent)
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland (Emily Carr)
The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Pan Yuliang)
The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth HIckey (Klimt)
Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke(Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven)

How much do I love the opening sequence of The Turkish Gambit?



It's based on one of the Erast Fandorin historical detective/spy stories which I read a few years ago. They originally caught my attention because the (Canadian editon) covers were styled much like the Flashman books.

(Also, the first book in Akunin's other series is called Sister Pelegia and the White Bulldog. Long live MarySue!Bulldogs!)

I don't recall a whole lot about the books. The most memorable detail for me is the part in the first book when an assassin attempts to murder Fandorin but the attempt fails because Fandorin is wearing a "Lord Byron" corset. Yes, really.

The movie plays so fast and loose with historical accuracy that even someone who knows nothing about the period is going to find it, um, highly improbable? (Though not quite as bad as the Sharpe movie where Sharpe fights Aztecs for hidden treasure in Spain during the Napoleonic wars with the Duke of Wellington's saucy niece).

On that note: can anyone recommend to me a historical movie with a female lead that isn't eyeroll-inducing? And not anything based on Jane Austen either because I've already seen all those.

Seriously, who writes this idiocy? In Turkish Gambit the female lead character, Varvara, has been running around the Russian countryside disguised as a boy without any obvious baggage, but as soon as she arrives at the soldiers camp she suddenly has an elaborate wardrobe. Because one of the nurses was a former dressmaker...and can produce ball gowns with a snap of her fingers, apparently.

But I perhaps I am being too nit-picky. The movie was actually pretty entertaining. My inner history dork went squeee over all the references to early photography and cryptography.

Anyway, back to fanfiction STUDYING!